Name : Jinushki Saluwadana
Index No : AS2018317
The globally accepted definition of a food label, according to Agarwal, is any tag, mark, pictorial, or other descriptive text, written or printed, attached to a pre-packaged food container. They are the first informative tool found by the customers during shopping, and are informative in terms of ingredients, nutrient content, and the presence of allergens of the selected product. However, food labeling also represents a marketing tool and may influence perception of the food quality and, in turn, the dietary choice of consumers. For this reason, there is growing research in the food labeling field and in the evaluation of its effects on consumers, food operators, and the whole market.
This study was conducted to evaluate the consumers’ level of knowledge and use of information provided on food labels in making purchasing decisions. A structured questionnaire-based survey was used for the purpose of the study. This is a cross sectional study done over a period of five months from October, 2010 to March, 2011 with an average of seven interviews being conducted each week. The survey was conducted at supermarkets, retail shops of various sizes in five towns: Colombo 02, Kottawa, Maharagama, Nugegoda and Horana in Sri Lanka. A total of 586 respondents were considered for the study.
| Name | foodlabel |
| Number of rows | 586 |
| Number of columns | 20 |
| _______________________ | |
| Column type frequency: | |
| character | 19 |
| numeric | 1 |
| ________________________ | |
| Group variables | None |
Variable type: character
| skim_variable | n_missing | complete_rate | min | max | empty | n_unique | whitespace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gender | 0 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Education | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| Employment | 0 | 1 | 7 | 10 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| marital | 0 | 1 | 6 | 7 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| fshopper | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| mplanner | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| easy | 0 | 1 | 9 | 20 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| familiarity | 0 | 1 | 9 | 20 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| friends | 0 | 1 | 11 | 14 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
| Useful | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Easiness | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Sufficient | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Trusfulness | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 6 | 0 |
| Clear | 0 | 1 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 0 |
| netquan | 0 | 1 | 11 | 43 | 0 | 3 | 0 |
| low in fat | 0 | 1 | 10 | 37 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| low in cho | 0 | 1 | 10 | 45 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| sodium | 0 | 1 | 10 | 18 | 0 | 4 | 0 |
| e labels | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 |
Variable type: numeric
| skim_variable | n_missing | complete_rate | mean | sd | p0 | p25 | p50 | p75 | p100 | hist |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age | 0 | 1 | 40.61 | 11.64 | 16 | 32 | 38 | 51 | 74 | ▂▇▃▅▁ |
Major food shopper of the household
Table 01:
| fshopper | n | percent |
|---|---|---|
| No | 171 | 0.292 |
| Yes | 415 | 0.708 |
Table 02:
| mplanner | n | percent |
|---|---|---|
| No | 150 | 0.256 |
| Yes | 436 | 0.744 |
Figure 01: